Wednesday, June 29, 2005

 

Now THAT is a FISH!

Following a trend started by The Glory of Carniola, a fellow Balkans blogger, here is my fish story. This fish was caught off of Thailand, and eatten but not before being photographed. This may be the biggest freshwater fish ever caught. as in EVER!
I'd be scared this fish would eat me!

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

 

Private property a dead letter in the U.S. as is the right to sue police for failing to enforce a Protection Order

Cities which take people's land and don't even fairly compansate them have been already in this country the occasion of the rare but nasty armed stand-off.
What really annoys me about life here is that these sorts of things happen and the people here just sort of mindlessly adapt to the new reality and move on. Maybe there is such a thing as being TOO 'civilized'! Collectiveization in the Soviet Union was denounced heavily in the books in every public school I attended, but here we have the same thing now in the U.S. ! The government now has the right to take your private property for not only common good type purposes, which sometimes is very necessary, but it can do the same thing for COMMERCIAL purposes!
I had a number of friends comment on this and all I acan say is if you hate Big Government, you have to equally hate Big Business, and Big Agriculture because both these things make Big Government inevitable.

I know another thing, in a real country the people wouldn't just be pissed off about it, they'd be doing something like demanding the Supreme Court all be examined regularly for senile dementia and Alzheimers and removed from the bench when they reach a state of incompetence!

On the not enforceing Protection, Restraining, Peace or No Contact Orders not being a cause to sue the police, that totally is disgusting. I hope lots of abused women go buy guns and shoot their abusers when their abusers come around! I hope they shoot them between the legs and let them bleed to death.

Then when the police come the woman should say 'Well since you didn't come and it was my life or his I took the only logical action. You are responsible, you didn't bust him when I called you and I can't sue you so well this was my only option. Self defense still exists and the right to bear arms still exists.'

I experienced spousal abuse. The restraining order was almost useless then because visitation rights tend to really weaken the concept anyway, but it was something, at least he didn't have the right to be around when it wasn't his visiting day!

The fact I could get even that nearly useless level of justice probably saved my ex-husband's life. I considered killing him and my mother considered killing him. There was a day she almost did it.

You men out there that like to beat on women, think about this, that Protection Order is for you a life saver. If it didn't exist, some of you jerks would instead be dead!

Not that any of us would miss you all or cry for you all!

The function of Justice in a society is above all to prevent violence even when violence might be justified. It is to give an alternative.

When there isn't that, and when there is no protection of the rights of property, then there is neither Law nor Justice.


It's not like there's no female Justices who should understand this issue, there's Justice Sandra Day O'Conner and Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. Both of them ought to realize what this does. I have not heard of any dissenting opinion in this case. If soemeone has heard I'd like to know.


Now we have NO justification to say bugger all about the legal situation of women or property rights in Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran because now American women's rights have just slid below the standard of all three of those countries. So for that matter have property rights!

Maybe when this country is reduced to a bunch of landless people involved in vendettas, the Justices will see the error of these two stupid,horrible decisions.

 

Today is Vidovdan, anniversary of many things....

If you are English this is the day of the victory of the Battle of Trafalgar. If you are from the Balkans however, this is a sadder day, the defeat at Kosovo Polje, and the anniversary of the assasination in Sarajevo of Franz-Ferdinand

What many people don't realize is that not only Serbs fought there. There were men led by Vuk Kosaca who led the troops from what is now Hercegovina. There were men from Bosnia as well led by the king of Bosnia and the father of Vlad Tepes was there (but he left early).
I had at least two ancestors present at this battle.
So I guess I get to comment.
This battle and it's story changed a lot about Europe. The first reports were that it was a victory, then a defeat.
The truth is that neither side actually won. Both leaders died. Both sides lost a LOT of their armies.
And it doesn't do to pretty up a military defeat by calling it a spiritual victory as the old poems in Serbian do.
A military defeat is a military defeat and it cannot be mistaken for or disguised as a spirtual victory. I think the effort to portray it as something other than what it was was more unhealthy even than being defeated was.
While I believe the European Union is a farce, and that the Euro is a passing financial fad, I still believe that nationalism as it was known only a few decades ago is on it's way out.
The world is actually moveing toward a more fluid understanding of nationhood, a more Medieval notion of this and perhaps more and more culture doesn't need to be sharply defined.
The U.S. has lived with that reality for some time now, moved from the Melting Pot concept which required assimilation and sameness to something more flexiable and diverse.
Europe will have to do the same.
Especially this has to happen in the Balkans if there is to be peace.
The latest speeches of Vuk Draskovic notwithstanding.

Monday, June 27, 2005

 

The first Bosnian victim in Iraq

Source is PBSBiH,

U IRAKU PRVA ŽRTVA IZ
BOSNE I HERCEGOVINE
Basra, 27.06.2005. - Ministarstvo spoljnih poslova BiH saopštilo je danas da je civil Ljubiša Aleksić, rođen 1976. godine u Zenici, poginuo sredinom juna u bombaškom napadu južno od Baghdada. Aleksić je radio za američku firmu "Lojd-Oven internešnal" kao obezbjeđenje u pratnji konvoja koji je prevozio naftu i drugu robu. Tijelo poginulog Aleksića trenutno se nalazi u britanskoj bolnici Šajba u Basri.>>

This man was a civilian Ljubisa Aleksic, born in Zenica in 1976. He workd for the American firm 'Lloyd Owen International' accompanying cnvoys, that carried gas and other goods. His body is in the British hospital Shayba in Basra.

 

Protest in the Gulag

A few of us got together to protest Doc Hasting's behavior in the House Ethics Committee.
This was downtown by his office, and had decent media coverage. I avoid talking to the media now, nothing personal, just that others say things better than I do wometimes. Representative Hastings is really too close to Rep Tom Delay to do an objective investigation. The whole thing has gotten ugly.
Quite a surpriseing number of people honked and waved in support of us.
It will make two TV stations, it was on the radio here, and perhaps it will make the paper.

Then the person who gave me a ride home helped me go to Bi-Mart where I bought potting soil for my tomato plant and my rose plant. They both seriously need repotting. I did the tomato first. I hope there isn't too much transplant shock, I used a leaky plastic ice cream container for it. I will find something to put the little rose in and then do it tomorrow. The other plants don't need replanting but I'm thinking of putting some garlic that has sprouted in a pot, where it can grow and be harvested sometimes.

 

Music so loud it makes your ears bleed is surpriseingly relaxing!

A friend invited me out to a heavy metal concert at a popular new venue in the gulag, an old fruit warehouse which now is a small mall. The basement is occupied partly by a bar, the first microbrewery in the U.S. Grant's Brewery Pub. They've always had music, and many kinds too!
This music was metal-grunge, the Cardboard Vampyre and three local guest bands which preceded them.
Cardboard Vampyres has the lead guitar who was with Alice in Chains and a guy who used to be with the Cult, a guy was forcibly ejected, by a large bouncer. I've never actually seen someone ejected so that was interesting!
I enjoyed Cardboard Vampyres, they were good!
The line at Grant's to get in was terrifying though! and they opened later than advertized, which was annoying, and I think a little hazardous. Still in a big city you'd get that maybe worse. Still the line to purchase books I wrote of earlier was actually shorter. Tells you soemthing about our gulag, loud music, definately stand in an obscene long line, books, don't do that to yourself!

 

A good friend of mine sent me this article on the Srebenica video

Srebrenica Video Vindicates Long Pursuit by Serb
Activist

By Daniel Williams
washingtonpost.com
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 25, 2005; A15

BELGRADE -- Human rights sleuth Natasa Kandic, a wisp
of a woman with a boyish haircut, spent hours in the
cafes of Sid, a town in northern Serbia, listening to
whispered tales of Balkan war killings. Then one day,
she heard about the videotape.

It showed the summary executions in 1995 of six Muslim
men and boys from the Bosnian city of Srebrenica. It
had been passed around as a war souvenir among members
of a shadowy Serb military unit called the Scorpions.
Its commander had ordered copies destroyed, but one,
she was told, still existed, held by a dissident member
of the unit.

Since that day in 2003, she searched until she found
the video. She gave it to the U.N. war crimes tribunal
in The Hague, where former Yugoslav president Slobodan
Milosevic is on trial, and to television stations in
Serbia, where it triggered a sudden self-examination in
a society that viewed itself as the prime victim of the
Balkan war atrocities of the 1990s.

On the tape, burly Serbs dressed in camouflage, with
cigarettes dangling from their lips, order bound
prisoners into a small meadow, then shoot four of them
in the back, at a time. The remaining two are ordered
to carry the corpses into a wrecked white house.
"You're the winners," one Scorpion barks at the body
bearers, who are then also gunned down.

The broadcasts on June 2 ripped away the veil of
secrecy and denial of Serbian military operations in
Bosnia during the 1992-95 war, particularly the
massacre of as many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys in and
around Srebrenica. No longer was it possible to label
atrocity tales as Bosnian Muslim propaganda amplified
by inventive foreign correspondents, as many Serbs had
done for a decade. The cold, relaxed pace of the
executions undermined the common opinion that whatever
happened in the Balkans was done in the chaos of war.

For Kandic, the video was a vindication. For almost 15
years, she labored to uncover atrocities committed by
all sides in the Balkan wars, but most notably, crimes
committed by her own people. During the 1990s, when
Serbs fought wars in Croatia, Bosnia and the Serbian
province of Kosovo, newspapers and officials variously
labeled her as a prostitute, spy, traitor and lunatic.

These days, she gets phone calls from strangers
praising her work. Police rounded up eight Scorpion
suspects a day after the video was broadcast. A ninth
was later detained in Croatia. Serbian Prime Minister
Vojislav Kostunica called the executions a "brutal,
callous and disgraceful crime against civilians."

Speaking last week in Washington, the chief U.N. war
crimes prosecutor for the Balkans, Carla del Ponte,
said that during her recent visit to Serbia, she "could
feel the impact of this video on all elements of
Serbian society."

Kandic exudes little joy. A debate in parliament over a
war crimes resolution last week degenerated into a
dispute over whether Serbs were the main victims of
atrocities, she noted. Moreover, the broadcast of the
video has yet to result in the arrest of Ratko Mladic,
the Serb general directly in charge of the Srebrenica
operation. U.N. officials have repeatedly charged that
he is hiding in Serbia.

"This government refuses to break with Milosevic's
criminal state," Kandic said.

Kandic spoke on the balcony of a small Belgrade
restaurant, chain-smoking and answering frequent calls
on her cell phone. She travels around the city without
bodyguards, though she acknowledges that someone might
want to take revenge for the Scorpion arrests. Her
activism is nothing new.

Before the wars, she was a sociologist. After
hostilities began in 1991, she decided to research
human rights abuses connected with the fighting. She
founded the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade,
organized candlelight antiwar vigils and mounted
petition drives to protest the use of Serbian troops in
the conflict with Croatia. "I documented abuses against
Croats and was called a traitor," she said. "Then
against Muslims. The same reaction. When I documented
abuses against Serbs, there was silence."

During the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, she said, she
traveled by taxi to the provincial capital, Pristina.
Ethnic Albanians were being expelled or fleeing in fear
from towns and villages. Serbian police looted and
burned their homes. At police checkpoints, Kandic
convinced guards that she was on her way to rescue Serb
relatives, and they let her pass.

Kandic dodged NATO bombs as she traveled from town to
town. She collected testimony on expulsions and mass
killings. Once, security agents detained her for eight
hours on the way to the southern city of Prizren.
"First, they said: 'We know who you are. You could be
disappeared.' But they let me go," she recalled. "Look
at me. I'm little. I'm a woman. I'm not a scary
person."

Kandic, 59, considers the waning years of Milosevic's
rule, which ended in 2000, the most dangerous period of
her career. It was a time of assassinations and
roundups of journalists, opposition activists and
student protesters. "Until then, Milosevic ignored us,"
she said. "We were few and served one purpose. He could
point to us as proof of democracy."

In 2000, Col. Svetozar Radisic, then the Yugoslav army
spokesman, told reporters that Kandic "should be
sentenced for what she is doing. A person who puts
forth such allegations might be a psychiatric case."
She remained free even as she organized legal defenses
for Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian jails.

In Sid, she was looking into a mass killing during the
Kosovo war when she heard about the Srebrenica tape.
Originally, 20 copies were made, she said. Later the
Scorpions' commander realized the images could be used
against him and ordered them destroyed. However, one
Scorpion, who was at odds with his comrades and was not
present at the executions, made an extra copy for
himself. Fearful, he hid the tape with confidants in
Bosnia, Kandic said. She set out to find it.

Other Scorpions, who had learned she was looking for a
copy, began to scour Sid for it and harassed anyone
they thought might have it. Finally, Kandic found the
tape in Bosnia. She agreed to publicize it only when
the owner and other informants were out of Serbia. That
was accomplished on May 20.

The Scorpion tale provides a key to proving high-level
Serbian responsibility for war crimes, Kandic said.
"The Scorpions just didn't wander around on their own.
They were ordered from place to place. . . . They were
integrated into the war machine."

The Scorpions were first dispatched to guard oil fields
in Croatia and to fight. They later took part in the
siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. When Mladic
launched an assault on Srebrenica in July 1995, he used
Scorpions to evacuate and kill Bosnian prisoners,
Kandic said.

The Scorpions also appeared in the Kosovo town of
Podujevo on March 28, 1999, and massacred a group of 14
women and children in the walled garden of a small
house. The local commander of the Scorpions unit in
Podujevo, Sasa Cvjetan, stood trial in Serbia last year
for the killings. He was found guilty and sentenced to
20 years in prison -- a sentence imposed again last
week after a retrial. Kandic was deeply involved in
bringing the Podujevo case to trial and was on its
trail in Sid when the story of the Srebrenica tape
surfaced.

The video begins with the Scorpions taking blessings
from a Serbian Orthodox priest in Sid, then traveling
through the Balkan countryside and sleeping in a wood.
Six bound prisoners are shown being transported in a
truck. Later the Scorpions force them to lie face down
on the roadside. The captors taunt them.

"Did you ever have sex?" asks one commando. "Never?"

"You're innocent?" asks another. "I'd be innocent,
too."

There is discussion about whether the video camera has
sufficient battery power to record the whole scene and
whether the tape needs changing. When all the bodies
are in the house, one Scorpion demands permission to
fire three more bullets at the corpses.

The tape ends with a pig roast.

Kandic wrapped up the interview after a caller told her
the Serbian government was willing to open a war crimes
investigation in another case she had worked on. A Serb
paramilitary commander named Nebojsa Minic, who
allegedly killed numerous civilians in western Kosovo
when he ran a unit called Lightning, was under arrest
in Argentina. She had fingered him as a culprit.

"All these cases are important," Kandic said and rushed
off.

__________________

Saturday, June 25, 2005

 

Another film of war crimes....

I'm sorry, I'm at my daughter's place and NOTHINTG works the same. plus the font size on their computer is really really small, so it's hard for me to see what I am doing here. Anyway the tech gap between out places has meant I didn't get to watch my films I brought, there is some idiotic difference that they forgot to explain to me in how everything works, they got cable and it all is different. Stuff like that can be really really crazy makeing plus I'm afraid I messed up all their codes trying to figure out how to make my DVD give me a picture as well as sound. I mean sound is nice but you'd like a picture. The video in question was Dani's Tanovic's film 'No Man's Land'. I've only been trying to see the whole thing since I got it for myself last Christma

This is my crummy lead-up to some real nasty stuff. I appologize again for the lack of pictures. If you want pictures, today's online edition of Slobodna Dalmacija has pictures. The Skopions didn't limit their efforts to the Bosnian Muslims, they killed Croats too, and were just as dehumanizing. One of the pictures shows one of them saying 'nema ustasa, ima koza ima ovca' There's no ustashi, there's sheep there's goats' sounds pretty dehumanizeing to me! Anyway I did copy and past the article so that you can read it if you read the language. Certain people say my grammer sux so I'll leave it to those of you who'se grammer doesn't suk to essay a translation. I pretty much do get the drift here and it's not drifting anywhere nice trust me. The Hague is interested in this film.
strana 1 od 1


ZLOČINCI NA SLOBODI NOVOOTKRIVENI VIDEOZAPISI IZ RATA, KOJE JE PRIKUPIO PAVLE VRANJICAN, POKAZUJU SERIJU ZLOČINA NAD HRVATIMA
UŽAS IZ VITEZA: Likvidacija Hrvata
MUDŽAHEDINSKI ŠKORPIONI Snimke koje je prikupio Pavle Vranjican, poznat kao autor dokumentarnih filmova iz rata "Amarcord 1 i 2", te "Komšije 1", doista su šokantne i podsjećaju na scene u izvedbi "Škorpiona". Snimljeni su napadi na okružene Hrvate na području Viteza, a gledatelje će uznemiriti snimka likvidacije zarobljenog i ranjenog pripadnika HVO-a, mudžahedin jednog ubija metkom u čelo, a drugog "rešeta" kalašnjikovim dok ovaj ranjen leži...
piše Davor IVANKOVIĆ

Film koji prikazuje pripadnike srpske posebne vojne jedinice "Škorpioni" kako mučki pogubljuju Bošnjake iz Srebrenice uzburkao je međunacionalne odnose u miješanim nacionalnim sredinama u Hrvatskoj, budući da su "uslikani" počinitelji ratnog zločina uglavnom građani Republike Hrvatske, srpske nacionalnosti, sada njihovi "tihi" i mirni susjedi.
Film je obišao svijet zaslugom britanskih novinara i rabit će se kao haaški dokazni dokument u suđenju Slobodanu Miloševiću. Hrvatski su mediji spremno prenijeli ovaj filmski materijal, no takvu spremnost, primjerice, javna televizija HRT nikada nije pokazala kada su joj nuđeni "domaći" slični filmski dokumenti, a koje već nekoliko godina uporno slaže i priprema grupa autora, okupljenih oko zagrebačkog režisera i voditelja nezavisne produkcije Pavla Vranjicana.

Kuće gore, komšije se vesele
Zahvaljujući ostalim medijima, kao i nekolicini lokalnih i gradskih TV stanica, te desecima projekcija po raznim kinodvoranama na "terenu", Vranjican i njegovi dokumentarni filmovi (Amarcord 1 i 2, te Komšije 1 i 2) ipak bivaju javno poznati.
Razliku u interesu javnih medija za prikazivanje filma o "Škorpionima" i onih iz njegove produkcije Vranjican tumači kao "pokazatelj našeg jada i bijede, jer da je bilo koji novinar iz Hrvatske prikazao ili imao takvu snimku, bio bi ignoriran, potpuno marginaliziran, a vjerojatno je da mu taj materijal ne bi objavili niti u njegovu mediju", smatra Vranjican, temeljem svojeg gorkog iskustva sa sličnim materijalima.
Vranjicanijevi filmovi, naime, predstavljaju originalne snimke koje su proizveli sami agresori, bilo iz JNA, bilo krajinski, potom snimke Yutelovih novinara, kao i one amaterske uratke samih agresorskih vojnika.

A gdje su ti dokazi
Te materijale, na kojima se vide stotine "komšija" kako s radošću i suludim veseljem pale, pljačkaju imovinu svojih nesrpskih sugrađana, javna televizija, kao i hrvatska država, očito smatraju "nezgodnima" i politički opasnim.
"Svaki stradalnik rata u Vukovaru može svakodnevno vidjeti i sresti više desetaka zločinaca koji su pljačkali, ubijali i mučili svoje sugrađane nesrbe, no ti stradalnici imaju tek svoja sjećanja, nije njihov zadatak da prikupljaju dokaze", tumači Vranjican.
Ovako, kada neki stradalnik prepozna i prijavi policiji i državnim organima nekog zločinca, ovi uglavnom pitaju "a gdje su vam dokazi", navodi Vranjican, a prozvani ih čak tuže "za uznemiravanje".
U njegovu najnovijem filmu "Komšije 2" prikazuju se tajni materijali, snimljeni 1994., a namijenjeni zapovjednicima korpusa RSK, a zapovjednici 21. kordunaškog korpusa Čedomir Bulat i Dušan Zlokas iznose cijeli sustav po kojemu je izvršeno plansko naoružavanje srpskog stanovništva, te zašto je propao plan za bunu u Gorskom kotaru. Iznose se sva imena i prezimena uključenih u plan, a slijede snimke napada na Slunj, Cetingrad, Topusko.
"Komšije 2" sadrže i videodokaze koji svjedoče o velikoj potpori JNA, seoskim stražama, ženskim jedinicama, drže se govori, pa opet slijedi "red paleži, red pljački".

Rnjakova dobrodošlica Arkanu
Slijedi 1992. i glavna proslava "dvogodišnjice balvan revolucije" u Bukoviću kod Benkovca, prisutna je cijela "vlada rsk", a posebni gost je - Željko Ražnatović Arkan... njegov je domaćin u Bukoviću Gligorije Rnjak, politički aktivan i u sadašnjosti, na istom području.
Slijede "junaštva" nad Zadrom, Cavtatom, svjedočanstva o skladnim odnosima pobunjenika s Unproforcima iz 1995., prikazani su ostaci srpske izbjegličke kolone koju je general Mile Novaković pregazio tenkovima kod Dvora u kolovozu 1995..., Jovan Rašković objašnjava "zašto su Srbi lud narod", a slijedi i prvi koncert u "oslobođenom" Vukovaru koji organiziraju četnici, njihov zapovjednik M.L. s nadimkom Kameni, vide se odgovorni za pokolj na Ovčari...
No, ovoga puta film sadrži i snimke rata u BiH, "jer radi se o istom ratu u dvije države", kaže Vranjican. Snimke su senzacionalne, jer snimatelji su - islamski mudžahedini stigli s raznih strana svijeta u srednju Bosnu. Snimljeni su napadi na okružene Hrvate na području Viteza, a gledatelje će uznemiriti snimka likvidacije zarobljenog i ranjenog pripadnika HVO-a, mudžahedin jednog ubija metkom u čelo, a drugog "rešeta" kalašnjikovim dok ovaj ranjen leži...

Dospjeli do Haaga
Vranjican i njegov stručni savjetnik, pukovnik Ivica Pandža Orkan ove filmove pripremaju u nezavisnoj produkciji i uz suradnju s pukovnikom Ratkom Dragovićem Klekom, te mnogim prijateljima, snimateljima i fotografima, a nedavno su pokrenuli i web stranicu www.domovinskirat.com.
Financiraju se od prodaje, prvo kaseta, sada i DVD-a, a Vranjican kaže kako ga uopće ne smeta što njegovi filmovi bivaju kopirani i "neovlašteno" prodavani u svijetu. "Mene to veseli, jer i želimo da ovi filmovi stignu do što šireg kruga gledatelja, posebno me veseli što su trenutačno vrlo popularni i u Srbiji",... kaže on.
Njegova je ekipa entuzijasta, naime, "uvijek korak ispred" jer stalno priprema najnovije videomaterijale i novi će filmovi slijediti "svakih šest mjeseci".
Vranjican i njegova ekipa ističu kako iz pouzdanih izvora saznaju da su njihovi dokumentarni materijali uvršteni već kao službeni dokazni materijal za neka haaška suđenja, primjerice ono koje će početi Vojislavu Šešelju (u Komšijama 1 vidi se kako osobno puca po hrvatskom selu).
Ekipa nastavlja i s projekcijama širom Hrvatske, a veseli ih kada lokalno stanovništvo prepozna one koji su ih pljačkali u punoj ratnoj opremi, a sada tvrde da "nisu niti puške vidili"..., stoga Vranjican, Orkan i Klek svoje dokumentarne serijale i rade pod motom - "Dođite da ih prepoznamo"!


Obrađuje se stotinjak novih videozapisa

Vranjican i njegova ekipa sada "obrađuju" stotinjak novih videozapisa, a iz kojih se može dokumentirano upoznati istina s ratišta u Hrvatskoj, ali i ona o falsificiranju srbijanskih materijala (laži patologa s beogradske VMA) i "dokaza" korištenih, primjerice, prilikom osude Mirka Norca.
Dokumentirani su i "Glinski šiltovi", istovrsna jedinica onoj "škorpionskoj" iz istočne Slavonije...činjenice o stanovnicima sela Berak koji su svoje suseljane Hrvate strpali u "privatni konc-logor", pobivši ih pedesetak...Državne institucije još nisu pokazale službeno i konkretno zanimanje za ove videomaterijale, no jesu "komšije", koje ekipi šalju obilje prijetnji, uglavnom preko interneta.

Haag zainteresiran za "Komšije"

Haaški sud je zainteresiran za ove filmove stoga što su prikazivanjem na brojnim lokalnim, a pogotovo TV stanicama koje pokrivaju Zagreb, postali javni i više ih se ne može ignorirati. Haag time sam sebi radi alibi, jer sad će moći reći kako imaju i te snimke, no pitanje je hoće li ove snimke biti samo uvrštene ili će i predstavljati dokazni materijal. No, ovo je svakako korak naprijed, možda sad i HTV zaključi da napokon smije prikazati ove filmove — kaže Vranjican.
Smatra, međutim, da Haag najviše zanimaju materijali o Vojislavu Šešelju, a ne, kako se spominje u javnosti, o raketnim lanserima pobunjenih Srba. Službenih kontakata Haaškog suda i Vranjicana zasad još nije bilo.


Još u rubrici:











Voditelj Internet odjela: Augustin Gattin
Internet podrška: NETmedia d.o.o.
© Sva prava pridržana: SLOBODNA DALMACIJA, 199

Friday, June 24, 2005

 

The mountain is blowing a little again.

It's been hot and muggy both and the mountain is blowing up a bit, it was reported on the local ClearChannel affiliate.

 

This is unbelievable!

This is really a very beautiful story. Thanks to Mario's CyberspaceStation. It was a link in a different story.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

 

No safe tap water in the Neretva Valley in Croatia

This is a nasty business. I don't know what the source of pollution is but it's quite unsual for bad water to be a problem in that region and this is the hight of the tourist season too!

 

Central Planning Committee and the Ministry of Joy

Here at Yakima Gulag People's Institute of Higher Re:Education really screwed the proverbial poodle!
Guess when my math class was scheduled? 7:00 AM- 8:30 AM, bad but not totally evil, in the bearable level of evil. It was a 5 credit course. NOW guess what the REAL class time is? MON-TUES-WEDS from 6:30 AM to 8:15 AM.
This is because someone not fully competant to decide what classes were worth what got to make up the schedule cuz the REAL schedule maker was sick at the time. So if I am a little crankier than I was now you know why! :)I will have to be up that early daily to not mess up my sleep pattern. I will not lie and say this class is easy, it is not, but at least it has wonderful teachers, two of them who do help you. I love them already! :)
Going to school that early has a couple hazards 1. the mega sized sprinklers and the neighbors who water their sidewalks, and 2. The big one drum roll please! Strap in here comes a big fat rant!
I am not fond of leaveing early, braveing the irresponsible neighbor's 1 seriously mean bitch and their 2 seriously mean dogs. It is SOOOOO WhiteTrash to have dogs loose like that in the CITY TWO BLOCKS from the College about THREE BLOCKS from a GRADE SCHOOL. Hey since no one here wanted to cut me any slack about my yard which probably isn't going to ever bark at you, bite you or block your way anyplace, I see no further reason to be nice about dogs getting loose. Anyway I called the city on them. They don't like it they can besa mi cola! I am sick to death of them Monday comeing home, the bitch blocked my way. I seriously had to use a bathroom and had decided to wait until I was home. That almost was a bad mistake right there. The bitch would not go home, would not respond to her owners weak whiny voiced (I've never met a woman with such a voice who wasn't being beat on incidentally!) calls to go home and followed me until the owner finally honked a car horn. Meanwhile I'm screaming at these people to get their God damn dogs off the God damn street.
I got home, and then called the city about the damn dogs. I noticed even the very bad makeshift dog pen was gone this morning. That's the other thing, no predictability. These are plainly people who have no business even owning dogs. They can't socialize them correctly or walk them enough. In general I don't think large dogs belong in the city. Not unless you are like Mr. Bill and take the dog for frequent walks, and are responsible about it. Hey I understand, sometimes dogs get loose, and do stuff, but EVERY DAMN DAY?!?!?!
It was practically daily, I do hope their absence today means they really are absent. I don't mind if a fenced dog barks at me. That is their job. I do however hate being followed in the street by dogs not on a fence or a leash. I hate dogs springing at me from nowhere, as happened last quarter twice. That is a serious breech of the rules. Dogs need to learn that the yard is theirs, bark if you must, the STEET however doesn't belong to dogs it belongs to PEOPLE! This is for their own good, because dogs can get hurt too, and I really hate that, because comeing down to it I like dogs! I don't like them getting hurt! And dogs that run loose do get hurt.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

 

Mindlessly funny stuff: Russian Lessons

Thanks Metafilter! the cool part is it's probably helpful with Cyrillic! :)

Monday, June 20, 2005

 

This just doesn't fit into the concept machine...

I'm sorry, guys like this should not be able to negotiate such generous 'compensation' for surrender! Mladic should do it for the good of his country and his people otherwise he should be captured. In fact I find the fact neither he nor Karadzic were captured to be suspect. It's bad enough what people went through because of these guys, why should they be bribed this way? Why should they be cossetted and mollycoddled? Both these guys are the strongest arguments anyone can use on me to argue for the death penalty, short of pedophilia.
I don't know how many of you remember the famous case of the Bandit Queen in India back in the 1980s, her lover Vikram told her, 'Kill one and they will hang you, kill 20 and you will be worshipped like a goddess!'
Maybe some of the same factor is at work here....Guys who killed one or two are causeing all the news, and the others well they get the good cells, if they even get detained or inconvenienced in the least.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

 

Right, what is our %#*&^@ excuse to still be going with petroleum based fues!??

Thanks Metafilter!!!!

I personally am sick of the excuses why we don't just make the change. Better to use stuff that grows back. Oil doesn't grow back, biomass is like EVERYWHERE! of course that would be logical and I guess some people are addicted to all the disgusting drama in the Middle East...

Saturday, June 18, 2005

 

sorry this is just plain bad and wrong

Mladic has avoided capture for so long, we should not be surprised no one has caught bin Ladin. Anyway it's sick and wrong.

 

Fiendishly Clever Thanks NPR!

of course this does presupose the presence in one's life of copper tubeing, a garbage can and ice water, but I bet it works well if assembled correctly. Somehow I didn't think of Canada as a country where you need air conditioning. Anyway, here for the benefit of any tinkerers among my readers!

Friday, June 17, 2005

 

More Skorpions rounded up

Kosova Report broke this story as far as English language sources go, ten ethnic Serbian citizens of Croatia have been arrested over the Srebenica massacre. They were liveing in Croatia and citizens of Croatia and therefore cannot be extradited unless there is a U.N. indictment. He has a very thorough report which was posted on Mario's Cyberspace Station. Mario's Cyberspace Station often picks up his reports.

Monday, June 13, 2005

 

One of the Scorpions is arrested in Croatia



If you can't read Bosnian the above report from Kosova Report is a very full report in English.

I found it wierd this man with his past survived so long in Croatia.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

 

FOODPORN


FOODPORN
Originally uploaded by Yakima_gulag.

Everyone has heard the expression 'Food Porn' before. This was on Saraynet and I could not resist it, it was simply too funny!


 

Recent Mass Grave find in BiH

This is a particularly sad mass grave find as children and pregnant women were in there. I felt sorry for the forensic scientists who had to deal with this. Of course for anyone who followed the news from Guatamala in the 1980s this wasn't anything new.
It makes me very sad to read of such things and very angry, especially when I know the perpetrators and those who ordered these things are still for the most part at liberty and to know that even some of the imprisoned lead better lives matierially than I do, and I live in America. I think at least the imprisoned should not be afforded things like hair dressers, stables, jacuzzi baths like Plavsic gets in her 'prison' in Sweden. Justice cannot REALLY be done to these people, so the least that could happen is that they not matierially be significantly more comfortable than prisoners in their countries of origin. These are crimes that constitute a fair argument for the death penalty.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

 

Snow in Bosnia! IN JUNE NO LESS!

The weather is totally wack in Bosnia Hercegovina, they've had blizzards, Thanks Mario Profaca!

 

I kind of wondered what happened to this guy...

I never got to hear Rufus Harley, one of these days I'm tracking down some of his stuff just out of curiosity. I read about him, and the article is right, the concept of Highland pipes and jazz really is not all THAT wierd.

 

Nasty remarks about Izetbegovic ...

While we pride ourselves on being the NSFW edition of 'Samizdat' we hesitate to say what 'jebo Alija' means in English. Let's just say it isn't very nice, it's the 'F' word, which in the U.S. is not printed in it's full glory in news papers except those of the 'underground' variety.
Bregovic didn't just use this verb once in regard to Izetbegovic, but twice.

Friday, June 10, 2005

 

sikly goodness

This is how i feel after a math test guys! note the spoon in the brain!

 

Yeah! Finals Week Over!

This has been a rough couple of weeks, I just finished in my math tests. I am getting out with a C, and it makes me very happy. The reason it makes me happy is that I have not gotten anything above D in Math since like fourth grade!
Thank you Mr. Bill!
Last night all the Winter Quarter people went out to Grants for a few beers and a friendly game of darts.
Then at the invitation of my friend Adolfo, I went to the graduation ceremonies. He wasn't my only good friend graduating, two people from Billing and Codeing are out, and the Poetry Mafija have ALL graduated. Maybe my work stands a chance in the Prism now! So did Oksana, the very nice Ukrainian girl, she had Spanish ahead of me by like a year. I used a funny story about us in the play. She still speaks Ukrainian, and she heard me say a bad word in Bosnian, so she asked me if I spoke any Slavic languages. She and I should have been doing our exercise, Mr. Pinon never noticed that we were yakking away, her in Ukrainian, me in Bosnian, because others were talking in English.
Anyway I loved Mr. Bill's class, I will miss him as a teacher, but he's been a friend too! He is the best kept secret of the Math Dept. He understands the pain of math challenged people and knows how to help. Without the help he gave me I would have flunked again. Instead, I am headed to new tortures, Applied Math II. 7:30-8;30 AM. That's probably a good thing, Martin Hall is sooo warm, so at least it will be cool in there. -*more later...

OK back, had to go somewhere, real life does intervene. The guy who probably reported my grass was driveing along and he wanted to know who does my grass. I did not let on about the nastygram from the city, just told him I hired a neighbor. Something about him gave me the creeps. I would NOT like him on my property, he simply gave me the wrong kind of bad vibes. I'd feel safer on a bus full of soldiers who hadn't seen a woman in a long time than with him on my property. He made some remark about haveing gone to my door. Well there is a sign not to knock or ring if you haven't called for an appointment. I told him 'That sign is for a reason, I'm a student and a lot of my classes are on-line and I often have timed tests. I can't have a lot of interuptions.' In a kind of sleezy way, he said 'I don't want to know what your business is but what are you studying?' So I said 'Billing and Codeing and classes which will lead to me being an interpreter. So he asked what languages so I said 'Spanish and Bosnian.' So he drove away quietly as another car came along. It's his kid that has the dodgy buddies. They were harrasing my guy that does the yard. I hired another neighbor, one who doesn't give me the creeps, and who does what is expected. Further, he works cheap. Which I need. He needs the money too, he's a student and doesn't have a lot of discretionary income. If for any reason he can't do it, then I'll have the guy that hauled the fridge do it, cuz I trust him, and feel safe around him. That guy is an older Black guy, and very very nice.
Besides I'm pretty sure that this is the neighbor who finked me off to the city. I don't like people like that, and I don't give finks business. There are ways he could have talked to me, or he could have left a flyer with his number and then answered the damned phone. Most people I've had do yard work for me are not good about answering the phone. Back when I first moved in and was in the market for a lawn care service, guys left fliers then didn't return my calls. Or I'd have people show up and have a sob story and need work. I HATE guys with sob stories. First of all, I've been a good person and had harder breaks than most of them, second of all they are not telling the truth half the time. I don't like kids doing this kind of work either cuz I'm liable if anyone gets hurt and kids are lots likelier to get hurt. I don't need the agro. So I am really really grateful to have someone who can do the job at a price I can afford and who has some damn sense. Plus it doesn't hurt that he's not creepy and is decent.

I have to say another thing, I'm really glad the Poetry Mafija all graduated. I love them, but damit, I would like to have stuff published too! hehe!
Now maybe I have a shot at it. Of course someone needs to talk to the students about WHY the Teenangst Drama Queen School of Literature is so over-represented in the publication. Not everyone on staff is a teenager from a stupid dysfunctional family. Two stories about people who self mutilate? Confessional writeing seldom rises to the level of bearable reading, let alone lit.
Anyway this rough quarter is at an end and hopefully I will have smoother sailing and better winds. It might be nice if I didn't feel the need of a specialist in Tropical Medicine.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

 

Cutting Weeds


Cutting Weeds
Originally uploaded by Marshed.

this was taken by my son's friend yesterday.


 

Al Qaida in LODI!?!?!?

I heard on the local news, and on NPR that two men, father and son in Lodi were arrested on charges related to Al Qaida. Here is where the going gets wierd, as if being busted for anything like that in Lodi California weren't weird enough...
They drove an ICE CREAM truck!
You just don't think of such people in such organizations and ice cream trucks in the same part of your brain...
I've been to Lodi on road trips when I was a kid, it just didn't seem to be that kind of place, a place to buy giganto jugs of wine, but not a place for Al Qaida types...
Of course back in the 1970s a lot of Yemeni people did come to this country and work alongside the Mexicans as migrant labor in the grape fields, unattached men mostly. One of these men was shot dureing the grape strike along with two Mexican men. I remember reading the Arab name with the Mexican names and wondering what the Hell was up with that. I mean I knew the guy wasn't like Black from the name. There were then certain names among American converts that were simply just a tip off that this was an American Black convert. So I knew reading the article the guy was from some Arab country, and then there was a report that at least a couple thousand men from Yemen were doing this work. So it's not like there weren't Arabs in that part of California for a long time.
It's not generally realized how many people from India are there and have been there since at least the 1970s. Sikhs in particular, who have rice farms and who are truck drivers. There is a book by Ved Mehta that deals with the presence of the Sikh community in California since the 1920s, and how they lived.

So maybe my intitial reaction was not a correct one. Maybe it should be more like 'Well why NOT Lodi? it's as logical a place for that sort of thing as anyplace else.'
One thing I'd like to say here. I first went to college in the 1970s. I'm on my third trip through the system. My first time in University, there were a lot of Arabs, a lot of Indians, and a lot of people from West Africa. The West Africans were all learning to be civil engineers. The Indians and Arabs were either in chemistry or nuclear science. Imet only ONE Indian studying for a degree in the arts, a very nice young man, the first Dalit I met, back then they were called 'Untouchables'. He was a fascinateing young man. I remember him generously and unself consciously allowing me to ask him 'absolutely any question no matter how stupid or rude!' His words. He wanted Americans to know all about Untouchables, not just the hard side of their lives, but the good part.
One of my questions to him was was he religious, he sort of was.Obviously he didn't buy that any Supreme Being had mandated Untouchability, he didn't believe that it was right, or of the Spirit that anyone had to be an Untouchable. My next question was, 'Since life is so hard for an Untouchable, why didn't you become 1. Christian, 2. Muslim, 3. Buddhist, 4. Sikh?
He explained that leaving his religion, even though it was bad for him, would cut him off from his family, his extended family. 'In India family helps one another in ways you can't imagine here! You don't just throw that away and changeing religion would throw that away!'
He was maybe 21 or 22 and a very wise young man in my opinion. He studied pottery, and was on a scholarship named for the man who wrote India's Constitution, an Untouchable.
He did not associate with any of the other Indians, let alone Arabs or Africans. He kept to himself, and his friends were mostly Americans, and mostly Americans who had rejected religion.
He was the exception. Most of the Indians, Iranians, Arabs, suffered greatly from culture shock, and it made them more religious, and more strict in their interpretation of their religion. This is not a rare reaction to culture shock, to fall back on what you are and to become more attached. It's also a common reaction to oppressions that have nothing to do with culture shock. As a country we should have been more prepared for it, and the countries of origin should have done more about it, to be of help to these young people before they came here and after they went home again. To just throw someone at a vulnerable time of life, the transition into adulthood into such an experience with no counsel, and no preparation is just asking for trouble.
In short, it's at least partly our own damn fault, but not for the reasons usually assumed.
I don't think any foreigners from anywhere should have been allowed to study nuclear science here. I think that was a terrible mistake and I thought so at the time. I resented the fact that as a person with one politically suspect parent, had I the talents, (which I don't and didn't!) I could not have entered a program to do studies like that. Why wasn't a closer look taken at the thoughts of these people? Why was no one in the intelligence community reading Maudoodi? It was available in English. I realize reading Indian English is a trial for most Americans but it's not like it's impossible!The ideas in the Little Green Book were easily as dangerous to the United States as anything in the Little Red Book I read both, I know.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

 

Major Frida Kahlo Exhibit in London

Frida Kahlo is one of the more remarkable personalities of the 20th Century. She has an unacknowleged Balkans heritage, her father came from a place called Arad, Arad was then in Hungary, but it is now in Romania.
Thanks Yahoo!
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I am still feeling ill. I woke up and was cold, so I put on a sweater and then inside of 10 minutes was too hot, so I had a tonic water. This cut the temperature changes a little. I have a math test which is extra. This is because even though I improved my grade, I did not improve it enough. So maybe I can get my grade up.

Monday, June 06, 2005

 

Stuff about Queen Katarina

This site has a full picture of her gravestone, not just the inscription. That is unusual.

 

More Medieval Food!!!

Apparently those people who could eat in the Middle Ages had healthier eatting habits than people now. I have been saying that for years, not only was the food healthier, it was delicious!

Saturday, June 04, 2005

 

James Connolly's Birthday is today

James Connolly was one of the most important leaders in the Easter Riseing of 1916, he was also one of the unrecognized founders of Socialism. He died for what he believed.

 

Via East Ethnia

This article is from Reuters and has pictures from the video, I put it in even though East Ethnia has it because some of the people who read Yakima Gulag Literary Gazett don't read East Ethnia. There is in there a picture of the Orthodox priest I refered to in my earlier posting.

Went to Edge Fest today, spent half the day there. I have to say that on the way I was messed with by not one, but THREE different Dogs. I hollered for the humans to come get their 'God damn dogs off the street!' This didn't get any of the damned irresponsible owners out. Maybe they were ashamed. They should be ashamed, not only do their dogs annoy me when I'm trying to get someplace but the dogs themselves are at risk of being injured by cars or other dogs or annoyed passers by. I'm considering getting a water pistol and loading it up with Tabasco, like the hottest form of Death Sauce going and see how long the dogs care to be a pain in the dupa.

Edge Fest was cool, I have gone the last two years now and had a nice time. I know you don't think a granny would like Punk Rock but I'm a BBB, Badass Balkans Baka, so I like Punk rock, although the Christian Punk Rock sounded FAR more 'diabolical' than the real Punk Rock! My favorite bands are USS Party, which I missed this year :( and Optimus Rhyme which I did get to hear, they are fantastic! I love their theme, it's kind of like MCHawking, Nerds With Attitude!
Right there I love it!I hear some RussPop, and Turbofolk influences and of course Rap. Anyway they are a great band, and bound for glory.

I love that the campus and the student body put something like this on, Edge Fest is a fundraiser for Northwest Harvest, they get donations of canned and non perishable foods this way, and that is a good thing, people do need that help, I've been helped by food banks in the past, and I look at helping like that as a very important thing to do. A lot of people fall through the cracks in our social safety net, so it's important to have organizations like Northwest Harvest,and another thing, there aren 't really enough safe activities for young people in the Yakima Gulag, so this is good from that point of view, there were lots of young people out enjoying the music and the Halo 2 tournament. That is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Friday, June 03, 2005

 

Comments on the NPR reports on the Srebenica films

I listened to the NPR broadcast about the massacres of Muslim men and boys. This film is proof, it is JNA film, the men who did these deeds were not only Serbs from Bosnia, but Serbs from Serbia, the worst part for me was to listen to the priest who blessed the perpetrators before the deed was done. That brings me to a story of a great priest who used to live in our Gulag.
His name was Father Pat Hurley. He was a handsome tall black haired Irish American with ancestors from the North of Ireland. His most famous homily in the Gulag is known to all who were present as the day Father Pat said 'God damn it ! ' in church.
He said 'I want today to speak of blasphemy' Everyone settled down for a boreing sermon. he then said 'I want to ask a question, a carpenter hits his thumb with his hammer and cries out 'God damn it straight to Hell!' has the carpenter blasphemed? raise your hand if you think he took the Lord's name in vain, raise your hand if you think I just took the Lord's name in vain. I and my children were among the five who did NOT raise our hands.
'A priest goes to an army base and says prayers and sprinkles holy water on the tanks, the bombs or the planes, has he committed blasphemy? again if you think he did raise your hand. My hand and the hands of my two children were in that church the ONLY raised hands!

Jesus came here to give us peace. I have read my Rebecca West like anyone who has bothered to read about the Balkans, and I read what she said about the Serbians not haveing combined Christianity with pacefism. Still even so, this was a massacre, not an act of war, as defending one's nation on the battle would be, it was not even on the level of an attack on a battle field, it was a massacre. I can sort of understand a priest blessing the troops of his nation, it is wrong but I can understand the impulse.
To bless men in the names of 'all our holy saints' I heard the words clearly. A few friends of mine online say that my abilities to speak Bosnian are not gramatical, that's fine, they probably are not. I learned what I between the age of 47, and the age I am now which is 52. You cannot expect perfection out of someone my age who is mostly self taught. I cannot speak perfectly,I cannot write perfectly but I understand just fine, there was not one word which was unfamiliar to me, not one case, and the accent was totally understandable, I can tell you the translator translated perfectly, exactly.
A priest, of any faith, of any denomination, of any religion doing such a thing before a massacre of unarmed people is committing blasphemy.

May God judge him.

Several have commented that Mladic will soon be arrested. I remember very well the news film of Mladic saying that he would not hurt anyone, I remember very well too the news film of the women and children being driven out in dump trucks, and that boys as young as 12 or 13 to men as old as their 70s being separated out. Now no one can deny anymore what happened.
I hope he is arrested. I hope for the sake of the Serbian people that it is their government which arrests him, not outsiders. I hope too that the other architects of that age of horrors are arrested, and are not spared the justice of man or the wrath of God.

 

Medieval Reciipes

Thanks MetaFilter! I love sites like this with the cool pix. I have to say though that not one SCA person of my aquaintance knows how to make good mead. I make the best mead in this Gulag!
Today was the last day of classes. I will need to do two more tests in Math to bring my grade up. I feel so tired from school. I MUST finish this out if I can. I will have finals by mail for Billing and Codeing. Wednesday, I can go find out my grade in Spanish. The plays today were good.
One was intellectual, a debate in a restaruant on Gay Marriage, and the other was a very funny film. I think actually out of the class, my group had the second best play.We feel very good about it, but I have to say, we are all glad it's over! :) Everyone did clever plays, and everyone did soemthing entertaining, so I'm pleased about it. My shrimp curry was a huge hit with my classmates in both classes. I had like a teaspoon worth of leftovers. I really have made some nice friends. I"m calling one right now.
This weekend I will go to EdgeFest but I'm also going to go up to the Relay For Life.
Last night's Step Danceing was odd. The costumeing was kind of bad, the dancers were decent however, and the music was interesting, very Balkans influenced. I liked it. The singers need me to give them Sean Nos lessons though. Sean Nos is not for just anyone. It's like the Blues, it's part of a life that I have lived part of and these nice young ladies have not lived that life.
Trinity came too, she hasn't had much exposure to Irish music, or to step danceing. I have seen All Ireland Champions in the Bay Area, and I know what the judges look for, because in the contests there, the judges used to say what the dancerd did best and how they could improve their performance.
The costumeing was simply terrible. I realize good step danceing dresses are very expensive, but if a person can't afford the right dress, a plain black or green velvet dress is best. Also BLACK STOCKINGS WITH COLOURS OTHER THAN BLACK DO NOT WORK!
The best of the dancers didn't commit that particular fashion error, but she wore a dress that came too close to being ORANGE! It also bore an enigmatic thing that looked like a Chinese or Japanese character.What was up with that?
The other dancers had iron-on badly exsecuted Celtic knots. they wore some kind of wrap around skirts made of a fabric that is too flimsy to have the right look for step danceing.
I really wish they'd spoken to me I would have explained why NOT to do that.
Frankly it looked bloody awful. If you can't afford decent embroidered work and decent Irish lace that's no sin, but that iron-on shit IS!!!
A plain close cut short dress with a knife pleated skirt with maybe a lace collar is good enough if you can't obtain the nice dresses with Celtic embroidery. The proper cloth is any decent plain broadcloth or velvet, in dark green, or blue or red. Orange or any color approaching orange is simply Not Done!

The only decent costume was worn by Anna Marie.
It was a two piece long green dress, with a stole. This type of dress is worn by some people from India on formal occaisions. It looked really nice and flattered her figure.
She's a good singer, but again, needs more exposure to real Sean Nos, even in this Gulag that's doable, thanks to Fiona Richie, or even thanks to ME!

Thursday, June 02, 2005

 

Arrests in Srebenica Case

This is interesting, I guess some of the denial is going away. I think that that can only be a good thing.

 

Prism another mixed bag

The latest Prism had some good work by good poets but I am afraid for the future of the ones who made top spots for a third year running, yes they are all good, and yes perhaps they even have great futures as writers but and here is the big one,
This is a VERY SMALL POND! Getting noted like that three times in a row in the gulag is not to be mistaken for being significant. That said, I liked the work of the three people in question, and would have probably put them in that spot.
What upsets me is how much really disappointing work of the Teenagnst School of writeing makes it in. I am DYING now to see what kind of work was submitted before. If there is any way I can find out what else got submitted that was overlooked, then I mean to do it.

Irish Dance at The Yakima Gulag People's Institute of Higher Re:education. Even though I don't feel so good, I'm going to go, because I would like to see some decent step danceing again, not to mention hear the music that goes with it. Tomorrow is the last day of classes. I'm doing what I can with the re:dos on math, and I confess, I have no clue on some of it. I have enjoyed the class and even learned some stuff, so that's good. I had the WORST Spanish exam ever in my life! My ENTIRE life.
On the upside, my last two compositions got decent grades. Give me time and a dictionary I can write stuff in Spanish now. The play was a sucess too, the other classmates wrote cute plays too. So I'm not too distressed. We really raised the bar on what was expected! I liked the play three female classmates did in RHYME no less in Spanish, about a jealous husband, an unfaithful wife and murder, it was well done and the girls who played guys did the macho postureing thing so perfectly. I love my classmates in that class. I'm probably going to cry when it's all over.
The homework for Billing and Codeing is all in at least though. I can't stand being online for classes anymore. It physically doesn't work because sometimes transfering information back and forth is a real pain physically. I just realized I have paper so t here is no good reason not to have carried enough paper!

At least the yard is under control. The guys did bring back my big old trash can which is for the recyclaables and my tarp. My tarp is damned important to me. If it gets nice and hot one day, I will need it in order to wash my fake Oriental rug. I will put the rug on it, put some nice biodegradeable type soap on the rug and run water over it and let the sun dry it. That should take a couple days at what ever point it gets REAL hot. I think I startled some teenaged loiterers. I just gave them the old fish eye until they left. Still need to call the city about the graffitti. I can now.
I am glad to have certain stuff gone. The old fridge and the mattress in particular. I need to rake but it can wait until tomorrow after school.
I need to rest now.
I'm still feeling ill. I almost threw up a little earlier. I don't throw up that often.It's rare for me even to come close to throwing up.
I went to help my friend Trinity (her fake name) with stuff around the college. She's going to start this fall we hope. Her parents are real glad I did that because they haven't been in college in a long time, and it's different now. I also introduced her around, so that she'd know some folks to hang with. That's important too!!!!!!

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